Manjula Pradeep during a women rights campaign By A Representative Foremost woman Dalit rights activist from Gujarat, Manjula Pradeep, executive director of Navsarjan Trust, referring to a gruesome incident of sexual abuse in a Facebook post on October 30, 2015 on her timeline, has said that “it is high time" one raised the point of concern as it is not only happening or happen to one person, but many women across India who are in leadership position.”

By Mohammed Kaleem Siddiqui For the first time after 2002, Muslims of Gujarat showed their numbers in Ahmedabad on the occasion of 17th national convention of All India Milli Council. The last time Muslims gathered on such mass scale was when the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board held convention in Ahmedabad in 1992 just ahead of the Babri Masjid demolition.

Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, writes to Sanjay Kothari, IAS, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Personnel and Training on the need to resolve the constitutional conundrum regarding oversight of the unbridled exercise of powers of delegated legislation by appropriate governments and competent authorities under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act): *** I am writing to draw your attention to the unresolved issue of the unreasonable exercise of the power of delegated legislation under the RTI Act by delegatees and the absence of effective parliamentary/legislative oversight of the same. You are aware of the fact that some appropriate governments acting under Section 27 and several competent authorities including heads of State Legislatures and Chief Justices of High Courts acting under Section 28 have notified Rules for the implementation of the Act in their jurisdiction that ar...

Rubabuddin By A Representative Well-known human rights lawyer Mihir Desai has alleged "extreme pressure" on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has taken finally a U-turn against its own charge sheet in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. He says, this appears to be a clear case of “caged parrot syndrome”, even as indicating it simultaneously suggests an effort to bury the case itself.

The front page of an Indian daily By A Representative Top British journal “The Economist” has wondered whether Gujaratis, qualified as the world’s “best businesspeople”, would continue to enjoy the same reputation in the future, especially when their image of “religious and ethnic tolerance on which so much of their commercial ethos was built” stands damaged.

By Venkatesh Nayak*  In November 2015, the media reported extensively on a press conference addressed by one Mr. Herve Falciani former employee of HSBC who leaked information about account holders who had stashed away what is alleged to be “black money” in that Bank. Mr. Falciani participating in the presser via skype had alleged that the Government lacked seriousness in acting on the information that he provided to them regarding black money stashed abroad. He claimed to have written to the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the Chairperson of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted in May 2014 to investigate unaccounted money stashed abroad by Indians. RTI application sent to the Black Money SIT As the bureaucrats in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) are extremely reluctant about sharing information about almost everything sought under The Right Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) I sent an RTI application along with the news clipping about the presser to the Public Information Of...

By RK Misra* Vendetta politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, and applying the wrong remedy, or so goes an oft repeated saying. Cold Delhi was sizzled on December 15 as the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) sought to ‘marinate’ the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office in a controversial raid that saw temperatures soaring in Parliament and fingers pointed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for resorting to such a practice.

Naresh M Rathod,  Rafik Husen Malek By Jagdish Patel* With the death of two more agate workers due to silicosis, Rafik Husen Malek (43) and Naresh M Rathod (42), the toll because of the deadly occupational disease in Gujarat has reached 20 this year. Both were residents of Shakarpur, Khambhat taluka of Central Gujarat. Last year, 25 deaths took place as a result of silicosis.

Modi with Dow CEO By A Representative The decision of Dow Chemicals, which took over $130 billion all-stock merger with US chemical giant DuPont last week, with the combined company to be named DowDuPont, has made top international NGO Amnesty to declare this doesn't absolve if of Bhopal gas tragedy in which 22,000 people died in 1984.

By A Representative Facts have come to light suggesting that several state governments, and other authorities, including state legislatures and high courts, are taking advantage of lack of constitutional clarity on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, in order to come up with RTI rules which “undermine” the Act’s “letter and spirit”.

K Kailashnathan By RK Misra* Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, for this time it tolls nearer home. The resurgence of the Congress in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bastion of Gujarat during recent local body polls is cause for enough concern for him. This became evident when, a few days back, chief secretary GR Aloria, DGP PC Thakur and chief principal secretary of the chief minister KK Kailasnathan called on him in New Delhi.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Supreme Court in a landmark judgement about transparency in the banking sector announced on December 16, expressed its concerns about the manner in which many Public Information Officers reject people’s requests for information under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). Some Information Commissions are only adding their weight to the problems that are increasingly preventing the effective implementation of the Act, instead of resolving them. The latest instance of this trend is from Kerala. In January 2015, Ms. Shikha Chhibbar, Project Officer, Access to Justice Programme, CHRI, submitted an RTI application to the Home Department, Government of Kerala seeking information about action taken to comply with the Supreme Court’s directives in the matter of State of Gujarat vs Kishanbhal [(2014) 5 SCC 108] delivered in in January 2014. She paid the RTI application fee of Rs. 10 using an Indian Postal Order (IPO). The Public Information Officer (PIO) of th...

Shailesh Gandhi By A Representative In what is being described as a “landmark judgment” in the history of the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, the Supreme Court of India has rejected the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plea not to disclose information to the general public about the action it takes on banks against their alleged irregularities.

Shailesh Gandhi By Venkatesh Nayak* In what will be described as a landmark judgement in the history of the implementation of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act), the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has thrown out hook, line and sinker, the plea of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI – India’s Central Bank) not to disclose information to the general public about the action it takes against Banks against their alleged irregularities. In a batch matter of 11 cases transferred from the High Courts of Bombay and Delhi namely, Reserve Bank of India vs Jayantilal N. Mistry [Transferred Case (Civil) No. 707 of 2012 & other related matters] the Apex Court upheld the orders of Single Commissioner Benches of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing RBI to disclose a deal of information about action taken regarding irregularities of Banks, loan defaulters etc. It is noteworthy that ten of these cases were decided by the then Information Commissioner, Mr. Shailesh Gandhi and one b...

By A Representative A broad spectrum of civil society and people’s organizations under the Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) has demanded from the Government of India to work for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 in its letter and spirit, even as ensuring that collective rights of tribal communities are upheld.

By Pratik Sinha* David Headley, the Pakistani American who scouted targets for the 26/11 terror attack by the Lashar-e-Toiba (LET), has been news for turning into an approver. He has also been news  regarding the Ishrat Jahaan case, with a section of the media highlighting, on the basis of information provided by powerful sections in New Delhi, how Headley had said that Ishrat was an LET mole.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ* On December 16th 1966, the United Nations General Assembly adopted two significant International Covenants on Human Rights: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These two Covenants, together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), form the International Bill of Human Rights, setting out the civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights that are the birth right of all human beings. As we observe December 10th, the anniversary of the UDHR once again, the United Nations has invited everyone to enter a year-long campaign on the golden jubilee of the two international Covenants on Human Rights. The theme this year is ‘Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always!’ which aims to promote and raise awareness of the two Covenants. The campaign revolves around key rights and freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear which...

By A Representative  A top data analysis website has revealed that, as of October 2015, Gujarat has the highest number of cases per 1000 people pending in its lower courts. While the all-India average of pending cases is 18 per 1000 people, Gujarat can have the distinction of having almost double as many pending cases – 34 per 1000.

By Venkatesh Nayak* On December 10, the Supreme Court of India pronounced its judgement on a challenge to a set of recent amendments to the law relating to Panchayati Raj institutions in the north Indian State of Haryana. In the matter of Rajbala & Ors vs State of Haryana & Ors . [Writ Petition (Civil) 671/2015] the Apex Court has held that the action of the State Legislature of Haryana of introducing three grounds for disqualifying voters from contesting elections to the Panchayats at all 3 levels (village, taluka/tehsil and district) on the grounds of: not possessing minimum educational qualifications; non-payment of electricity Bills or dues to cooperative banks; and (believe it or not) not having a toilet in their homes. The Apex Court has held that these disqualifications do not violate the right to equality guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution and they are not unreasonable or arbitrary. One of the judges on the Bench which delivered the judgement in a separate con...

Farmers protest against Dholera SIR By A Representative In an important "relief" to the farmers of living in the 900 sq km Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), touted by the Gujarat government as a Greenfield smart city about 100 kilometres south of Ahmedabad, the Gujarat High Court has order to maintain status quo on land acquisition for going ahead with the project.

By A Representative In an interesting revelation, a new report by two well-known NGOs, the National Election Watch (NEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), suggests a powerful hold of corporates over the two main political parties, BJP and Congress, in India.

By Jatin Sheth* Bihar still represents rural India as urbanization is much less. There, the BJP lost elections. Similarly, in rural Gujarat, BJP lost heavily in district and taluka (block) panchayat. The following could be the reason: The government allocates large budget spending for rural area. Most of the population falls under beneficiary category. So, almost all people have direct interactions with local government and their officers. 

By Amit Srivastava* A proposal to tax sugar sweetened beverages like tobacco in India has been welcomed by public health advocates. The proposal to increase sin taxes on aerated drinks is part of the recommendations made by India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the parliament of India.

By A Representative Top advocacy group Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), based in Delhi, has warned that if the Rajya Sabha passes the Whistle Blowers Protection (WBP) Amendment Bill, it “may have to" move courts, along with other civil society organizations, “to challenge the constitutionality of the Bill vis-a-vis basic human right to accountable governance and the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.”